Culture chief eyes ‘radical’ TV overhaul

Date: 28/03/02

By Peter Chapman

CULTURE Commissioner Viviane Reding is backing a 'radical' overhaul of out-of-date EU television rules to take into account huge changes in the sector over the past decade.

Speaking at a conference on the issue, Reding said the revolution in TV technology - including internet and interactive digital broadcasting - would likely warrant more than mere fine-tuning to existing laws.

But she said she preferred to put off issuing detailed proposals to update the 'television without frontiers' directive - adopted in 1989 and updated in 1997 - beyond this year.

Instead Reding favours setting out a 'work programme' laying the groundwork for a new proposal by the end-of-2002 deadline for completing an ongoing review on the directive.

Experts are examining technological and market developments, new advertising techniques and the impact of measures to promote the distribution and production of European works.

Reding said the new 'concept' would go beyond the current law which is intended to allow broadcasters operating legally in one member state to transmit in another.

The directive, aimed at creating a single market for broadcasting, places certain limits on content - such as a 50 ceiling on non-EU productions - and advertising.

Erkki Liikanen, the enterprise and information society commissioner, told the conference that broadband internet access was crucial to the EU's role in the audio-visual sector.

European Commissioner for culture, Viviane Reding, is backing a 'radical' overhaul of out-of-date EU television rules to take into account huge changes in the sector over the past decade.